I spent one too many nice weekends in my shop with my beloved ''bikes of character'' while everyone else was out riding. I decided I needed one new (with warranty) ultra reliable, if characterless , low maintenance and very versatile bike to have as a daily rider to supplement the others . I'm not wealthy but bikes ''are'' a priority for me and could consider, within reason any bike I wanted. The only constraint I imposed on myself was to leave ''emotion'' out of it, realizing that it was emotion that had me in the shop wrenching on pretty, but high maintenance bikes on sunny days in the first place.
I needed a large displacement bike capable of long days at effortless high speeds, but also one that I could check out those great looking dirt or gravel roads on, that we see while traveling. Short list......although drawn to the more exotic adventure bikes, their reliability records (in some cases) ''combined'' with their higher costs put them out (remember no emotion!). The DL 1000 seemed like the only ''logical'' choice for my application, so I thought I'd give one a try and see if I could live with the lack of character that I decided Stroms had ? ........ In 8 months I've put more miles on the V-Strom than any single bike I've owned (that's a lot of bikes) and can't seem to pry myself off the thing, I'm even starting to think it's pretty ....and I'm not sleeping at home!
No character? ...No emotion?... I Looove......
,,,,,,,,,,you
...............V-Strom!!
